Zotac Has An External Box For PCIe SSDs And Small GPUs

Zotac revealed another external device that leverages Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 technology, only this time, it’s designed for PCIe SSD storage devices.

The device is simply known as “External Box” for now, and it features four USB 3.0 ports on the front and a full-length PCIe x16 slot under the hood. The device was displayed with one of Zotac’s Sonix SSDs loaded in it, but we were told that you could also equip it with a small form factor GPU and use it as an external GPU amplifier.

However, any graphics card you could fit in it likely wouldn’t need additional PCIe power (which is fine, because there isn’t an additional power lead), so don’t expect to put anything much higher than a tiny GTX 1050 Ti  in it, at most.

Pricing and availability of the new External Box is unknown, but it’s interesting to see Zotac utilizing Thunderbolt 3 technology in this manner.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
  • Brian_R170
    Bummer. I was hoping that short 1080Ti that Zotac just showed off would fit in this enclosure. Forget that it can supply only the basic 75W of PCIe power, it also looks like it lacks space and ventilation for a double-width high-end card, even a short one.
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